French roulette: what to expect from the confrontation between Safonov and Golovin

In the current draw of European football club tournaments, the playoffs start this week. The Champions League, Europa League and Conference League will host play-off matches this week, the winners of which will advance to the 1/8 finals. In these meetings, our viewers are particularly interested in the confrontation between two French clubs, in each of which the Russians play a significant role — Matvey Safonov's PSG will face Alexander Golovin's Monaco. In addition, Nikita Khaikin's Norwegian Buda-Glimt will play with Inter Milan. Andrey Chervichenko and Dmitry Bulykin were asked by Izvestia to evaluate the chances of the teams with the Russians.

Monaco – PSG

The French teams will play each other on February 17 at the home field of the Monegasques, and eight days later they will play the return match at the Paris stadium. Both teams didn't play well in the group stage. According to the current regulations, 36 clubs participate in the group tournament, each of which holds eight games. According to their results, the teams that took 1st to 24th places continue to compete in the Champions League. At the same time, the top eight directly qualify for the 1/8 finals, which will be held in March. The remaining 16 clubs will compete for entry into this stage through play-offs.

Last year's Champions League winner PSG finished the group stage in 11th place, Monaco in 21st. The winner of this pair will advance to the 1/8 finals at Barcelona or Chelsea in London — the draw will take place after the end of the round.

Over the past month, Matvey Safonov has made a significant step towards finally achieving the status of the main goalkeeper of the French superclub. Back in December, after the injury of PSG number one Luc Chevalier, our goalkeeper got a chance to win back a place in the base from a competitor. And he justified the trust by playing to zero in the French Championship match against Rennes (5:0) and the Champions League against Athletic Bilbao (0:0), and then, despite missing two, the Parisians beat Metz (3:2).

The highlight was the victory in the Intercontinental Cup over the Brazilian Flamengo. In the main time, the match ended in a draw (1:1). On penalties, PSG prevailed 2-1 thanks to Safonov, who hit four eleven-yard shots. It seemed that he was the main one now, but it soon became clear that, reflecting one of the penalties, Matvey got a broken arm.

The goalkeeper, who turns 27 on February 26, is out for a month. During this time, Chevalier did not play very successfully. And upon Safonov's return to the ranks, PSG head coach Luis Enrique gave the Russian a chance again. He did not disappoint, bringing several victories to his team. He has already held four meetings in a row since January. Only at the end of last week there was a setback, when Parisians with Safonov in goal lost away to Rennes (1:3).

This is Safonov's first match in a season and a half at PSG, when he conceded more than two goals. However, this failure was mostly attributed to the mistakes of the Ukrainian central defender Ilya Zabarny. Therefore, it is possible that Matthew will play against Monaco again. Meanwhile, his team lost its lead in the French championship due to this defeat, falling one point behind Lance with 12 rounds to go.

Monaco is failing the season and is still in the middle of the championship table. During November, December and the first half of January, Golovin's team lost seven out of eight matches in the national championship. Interestingly, the only exception was the 1-0 home victory over PSG, whose leadership seemed unshakable at the time.

But the last four matches for the Monegasques were without losses — two wins and two draws. Last week, Monaco won 3-1 at home against Nantes thanks to two Golovin assists. However, after that, our midfielder received two yellow cards in one minute (the second one due to disputes with the referee) and was removed from the field, which means skipping the next round of the championship. But this disqualification does not apply to the Champions League.

Monaco moved up to eighth place and is three points behind sixth, which gives a ticket to the Europa League. Nine points separate the Monegasques from the fourth place, which means participation in the next Champions League.

"PSG looks like the clear favorite of this confrontation, especially if Safonov does not make mistakes and is not set up by defenders, as Zabarny did in the last game," Andrei Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak Moscow, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Of course, Monaco can win in a separate match, especially since Parisians are not perfect right now. And we saw this in the championship, when Golovin's team defeated PSG. In a two-match standoff, the class of Safonov's team should have an impact. If Monaco were in good shape now, one would think that they would knock out PSG. But Monaco, even with their recent league wins, is very disorganized. This is also evident in Golovin, who, after two assists and a good match, is freaking out, getting sent off out of the blue. In this state, big matches are not won.

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Bude-Glimt – Inter

For seven years now, Russian Nikita Khaykin has been the main goalkeeper of the Norwegian Bud Glimta. Cooperation with the club was interrupted only at the beginning of 2023, when the 30-year-old football player left for English Bristol City. Bude-Glimt won four consecutive Norwegian championships in 2020-2024 with Haikin in the goal. Previously in the history of the club there was not a single gold of the national championship.

There are successes in European competitions as well. Last season, the team sensationally reached the semi-finals of the Europa League. In the current Champions League draw, she made it to the playoffs, beating Manchester City (3:1) and Atletico Madrid (2:1) at the end of the group stage. Now the Norwegian team is waiting for a confrontation with Inter Milan — at home on February 18 and away on February 24.

The Italian club won its home championship the season before last, and reached the final in the last Champions League, where it was defeated by PSG (0:5). After that, Simone Inzaghi, the creator of the Nerazzurri's success in recent years, left the post of head coach. But under Christian Kivu, who replaced him, Inter continues to dominate in Serie A — it leads the Italian championship with 13 rounds to go, eight points ahead of its closest pursuer Milan, having played one more match.

—The Norwegian club and Khaikin are facing a very difficult confrontation with one of the strongest clubs in Europe," Dmitry Bulykin, a former striker of the Russian national team, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — Obviously, Inter's class is several orders of magnitude higher. But Buda-Glimt has repeatedly proved its ability to beat top clubs in this Champions League. And Khaykin was one of the key factors in these successes. Therefore, a sensation is possible with Inter. A lot will depend on the Russian goalkeeper and his reliability here.

Also, one Russian legionnaire will play in the Europa League playoffs. In the 1/16 finals, Greek PAOK with midfielder Magomed Ozdoev will face Spanish Celta on February 19 and 26.